The present invention relates to CPU coolers and more particularly to a porous CPU cooler with increased heat dissipation capability.
Information technology has known a rapid, spectacular progress leading to increasing developments of various electronic components which are mounted in computers and computer peripherals. Also, they are widely employed in our daily life and almost all trades. Such trend of expansion not only increases speed and efficiency of information communication but also brings a great convenience to our life and work. For coping the needs of vast consumers both designers and manufacturers of computer components and peripherals endeavor to continuously develop compact ones of such computer components and peripherals as inspired by the slim compact design principle. As such, a complete computer system assembled from such compact components and peripherals is also compact with space saving feature.
Now, the computer components and peripherals are more powerful as the ongoing development of information technology. A central processing unit (CPU) for controlling all components of computer and coupled peripherals must operate in a faster duty cycle for cooperating with the components and peripherals. It is also known a large volume of heat can be generated as the CPU executes in a faster speed. Hence, the performance of computer may be adversely affected if the generated heat of CPU cannot be effectively dissipated. To the worse, the computer may operate abnormally if the generated heat continues to accumulate. Conventionally, for dissipating heat of CPU a cooler is mounted on the CPU for absorbing heat generated during operation. Further, the absorbed heat is quickly dissipated from a large number of fins (i.e., for the purpose of increasing heat dissipation area) of the cooler. As an end, the CPU may normally operate in executing processes.
A well known CPU cooler is shown in FIG. 1. The cooler comprises a heat dissipation mechanism 1 including a flat base 10 rested on a CPU 2, a plurality of parallel fins 12 extended upward from the base 10, and a fan 13 for cooling the CPU 2 mounted above the fins 12 by a predetermined distance. In operation, a current of air set up by the fan 13 is directed to grooves each between two adjacent fins 12 for dispelling heat absorbed by the heat dissipation mechanism 1. As an end, the purpose of cooling CPU is achieved.
However, the prior art suffered from several disadvantages. For example, it is understood that the current of air is set up by blades 132 of the fan 13. As such, a portion of heat absorbed by the fins 12 of the heat dissipation mechanism 1 facing the blades 132 can be quickly dissipated by the current of air. However, another portion of heat absorbed by the fins 12 of the heat dissipation mechanism 1 facing a shaft 134 of the fan 13 cannot be quickly dissipated by the current of air since that portion of the fins 12 is blocked by the shaft 134. As a result, only heat generated on a portion (e.g., areas along the sides) of CPU can be effectively dissipated. Hence, the total heat dissipation efficiency of the CPU 2 is low. This in turn may adversely affect the stability of a running computer. As stated above, volumes of heat is generated as the CPU executes in a faster speed. Thus, the prior art technique of directing current of air set up by the fan 13 into the fins 12 can only carry away a small portion of heat absorbed by the fins 12. In other words, most heat is still accumulated within the fins 12 during operation. As such, the high speed CPU 2 may not operate normally due to high heat. To the worse, the computer may not operate normally because the CPU 2 is operating under a high temperature environment. Thus improvement exists.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a porous CPU cooler comprising a heat sink including a plurality of pores formed therein and therearound being in fluid communication with one another, and at least one heat-directing member on the heat sink. In operation, a current of air is either directed into the pores of the heat sink through the heat-directing member prior to leaving the pores on the surface of the heat sink or directed into the pores of the heat sink from the surface of the heat sink prior to leaving the heat-directing member. Either air path can carry heat accumulated inside and on the surface of the heat sink away for achieving the purpose of cooling CPU. By utilizing this, it is possible of effectively dissipating heat accumulated in the fins as experienced by the prior art.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.